334 



THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



House List of Candidates for the Council, the list of 

 the Trustees, Vice-Presidents, and Members of Council, 

 their residences and counties in which they arc situated 

 be added. 



On the motion ot Mr. BranUrelh Gibbs, seconded by 

 Mr. Torr, it was resolved that in order to keep a due 

 check on the number of assistants' and servants' tickets 

 issued to the Exhibitors in the Implement Yard— the 

 number granted shall bear a definite proportion to the 

 size of their respective Stands, and the Council decided 

 that the proportion shall be two Assistants for the first 

 10 feet of shedding and one for every additional 10 feet. 



It was announced that Professor Simouds would 

 deliver a Lecture before the Members of the Society on 

 Wednesday, the 17th inst., at 12 o'clock, <' On the 

 Nature and Causes of the Disease known as the Rot of 

 Sheep." 



The Council then adjourned to their weekly meeting 

 on the 17th April. 



It was only natural to suppose that Professor 

 Simonds would have something more to say on the 

 Sheep Rot than he ofiered on his first appearance after 

 retui'ning from Devonshire. Indeed, we are assured 

 that he settled some two or tlirec weeks since to give a 

 Lecture at the Weekly Meeting, on Wednesday the 

 17th of April. Unfortunately, however, the country 

 received no intimation of this until the day before the 

 address was to be delivered, and, as a consequence, 

 there was not a large gathering. Wo arc still enabled to 

 correct this by publishing the Proftssor's speech in full, 

 thanks to the good sense of the meeting, whicli insisted 

 upon this being done at once. The very critical time to 

 guard against is declared to be Midsummer. It is 

 then that, after a wet season, the flock is most liable 

 to disease, a point that Mr. Simonds put with due em- 

 phasis. And yet an attempt was made to postpone 

 tho publication of the jiaper until its appearance in 

 the next number of tlie Journal, that is in August 

 or September, when, unfortunately. Sir John Johnstone 

 had to leave the chair before the proceedings were brought 

 to a conclusion. The resolution, indeed, for the imme- 

 diate dissemination of the lecture had to be proposed 

 twice over. In the first instance Mr. Arkell, a tenant- 

 farmer from North Wiltshire, moved, and IMr. Holland, 

 the new member of Council, seconded him, "That the 

 lecture be published immediately ;'' but this receiving 

 no attention from the Chairman, Mr. Fisher Hobbs 

 moved the same thing in writing, which Mr, Brandreth 

 Gibbs seconded. These gentlemen had then to demand 

 that their proposition be put from the chair, as it very 

 unwillingly was, and at once unanimously adopted. 

 Had not the Meeting exhibited some firmness the 

 critical time for guarding against the sheep-rot would 

 have come and gone without t!io members knowing 

 anything of what their veterinary authority recom- 

 mended ! 



And the very pith of the Professor's address turned 

 on this " guarding against." A great portion of it, as 

 will be seen, went to the origin and development of the 

 flukes. With the exercise of much tact Mr. Simonds 



makes what at first looks like a very dry theme quite 

 an interesting study for us all, and few will read his 

 fluke tiieory without having their own observation 

 quickened. The development of the creature is the 

 new feature of the paper, and its gradual advance to 

 perfection, with the circumstances that favour this, are 

 arguments evidently only advanced after much careful 

 consideration. Still, at the end of an hour or so there 

 was some impatience exhibited as to the deduction to be 

 drawn. What was the remedy ? In plain truth, little 

 or none. Mr. Simonds goes more for a preventive 

 than a cure ; and rather to getting diseased sheep ready 

 for market than attempting to set them up again. 

 After a wet season, or even for a year or two further, 

 there is much to fear ; and Midsummer, above all 

 other periods, " tho time to strike," Protect your 

 flock from the weather, and feed high ; give corn, 

 and other nitrogenous food, and administer salt and 

 tonics. There is not, perhaps, anything very new 

 in this. It would seem to be the common course 

 to adopt against the advance of any debilitating dis- 

 order; and is already, we hear, in use in Devon- 

 shire and other districts where the rot has been 

 spreading its ravages. It is, indeed, remarkable to 

 see how thoroughly Science and Practice agree 

 in their study of this common ill, and the means they 

 would take to meet it. Very much what Professor 

 Simouds said in Hanover Square, our correspondent, 

 "A Practical Farmer," has advised us of: — 

 " Give your sheep good rations of coi-n, or cake ; keep 

 them exceedingly dry; give them also an abun- 

 dance of common salt," and so on. Again, " The 

 late rains have thoroughly saturated every land ; and 

 tliey are so continuous, as never to give time even for 

 partial drying. On this account every danger is to be 

 apprehended, and every known preventive must be 

 sought for to stem the dire irruption. It is in prevent- 

 ing mainly that safety can he attained." This sen- 

 tence is the very text-word of the lecture; and Science 

 and Practice so far but echo each other. But, assume 

 the sheep to be aS'eeted, and then tiio farmer says, 

 " Push them into condition as fast as possible, and send 

 them to market to make what best they may," The 

 Professor very properly offers more minute instructions 

 for getting them into condition, but with precisely the 

 same object, " when you may perhaps be able to sell 

 them as fair food, or what we might call pretty fair 

 meat." There is a deal of valuable matter in the 

 lecture. It is carefully collated, and well put together ; 

 but tho difficulty is anything but overcome, and so 

 far, either as the actual origin of the di.seaso 

 goes, or any effectual remedy for meeting it is con- 

 cerned, it is a question whether we have advanced much 

 upon what already was known. The strength of the 

 paper is, that it presses common sense, easily available 

 means and i)rccepts which sufferers may have',been too 

 apt to overlook in their search for some more thorough 

 cure. The Germans argue, the Devonians dift'er, aud 

 the Professor and the public profit, at least in some 

 degree, by all they have to offer. Still the monster 

 rises hydra-headed before us, and wc can scarcely 

 be said to face him. One man, however, is ready 

 to do so, A French veterinarian has voluntceied, 

 through Monsieur Trehonnais, to come over and 

 try his own prescription on some of the diseased 

 animals, with the understanding that it shall be 

 " no cure, no pay," The recipe is said to have 

 been employed with effect in this gentleman's own 

 country, and certainly nothing can sound fairer than 



